Embattled Tycoon

(CFP)

Terry Gou, Chairman of Foxconn Technology Group, apologized and pledged better welfare for workers on May 26 after a string of employee suicides.

At least 12 employees in Foxconn's Shenzhen plant in south China's Guangdong Province attempted to kill themselves as of May 26 this year. Ten died and two were severely injured. The suicides have triggered widespread criticism of Foxconn's allegedly inhumane management style.

Gou promised the company would do everything possible to prevent more deaths. "I cannot guarantee that similar deaths will not happen again, but we are doing our utmost to look after and care more for our staff," he said when meeting the media in Shenzhen.

Gou, 59, is ranked as the richest person in Taiwan in the Forbes magazine list of the world's billionaires, with a fortune of $5.5 billion.

Foxconn is part of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., which was founded by Gou in 1974. It is now the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronics and computer components, occupying the 109th spot among the Fortune Top 500 companies in 2009. The company employs more than 800,000 mainland workers.

New CIC Managers

Peng Chun (CFP)	Fan Yifei(IMG)

The Board of Directors of the China Investment Corp. (CIC), the country's $200-billion sovereign wealth fund, has appointed Peng Chun and Fan Yifei executive vice presidents. Fan was also assigned to the post of deputy chief operating officer.

Peng, 48, holds a doctor's degree in economics. He joined the Bank of Communications in January 1994 and was promoted to vice president of the bank in September 2004. Before that, he was assistant president of the bank, after serving as branch president in Urumqi, Nanning and Guangzhou. He quit all his posts in the bank in April.

Fan, 46, also holds a doctor's degree in economics. He was executive vice president of China Construction Bank between July 2005 and May this year. Before that, he successively served as general manager of the Finance and Accounting Department and the Planning and Finance Department and as assistant president of the bank.

Swinger Professor Jailed

(CFP)

Ma Yaohai, an associate professor at Nanjing University of Technology, has been sentenced on May 20 to three-and-a-half years imprisonment for organizing group sex parties.

The Qinhuai District People's Court in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, convicted Ma and 21 other people on charges of group licentiousness and sentenced 19 of them to various jail terms. They are the first people in 20 years to be given criminal penalties for the crime.

"Ringleaders and persons who repeatedly take part in licentious activities shall be sentenced to fixed terms of imprisonment of no more than five years, criminal detention or public surveillance," says Article 301 of China's Criminal Law.

The court found the 14 men and eight women guilty of engaging in dozens of group sexual activities from 2007 to 2009 after making contact via the Internet.

Ma, 53, admitted the facts, but argued that, as all the defendants were voluntary adult participants, they were not guilty of any criminal activities.